King of Karaka retains his crown
Te Akau principal David Ellis finished the Book 1 session of New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sale in strong fashion yesterday, going to $500,000 to secure lot 626, the Savabeel colt out of group two winner Gold Rocks.
‘‘I bought him for a brand new client of Te Akau’s who wanted a really nice colt,’’ he said.
‘‘We trained a full-sister to the colt that we won the Matamata Breeders’ Stakes (Gr.2, 1200m) with, Gold Fever.
‘‘She was a real two-year-old and I thought this colt was a very precocious colt from a precocious family and he will race in the Tangerine.
‘‘It is a nick with Savabeel that has been really successful.’’
Buoyed by Te Akau’s success at Ellerslie on Saturday night winning a fourth successive Karaka Million 2YO (1200m) with Cool Aza Beel, and Probabeel becoming the first horse to win the Karaka Million double when taking out the Karaka Million 3YO Classic (1600m) – Ellis was once again very active at Karaka.
He purchased 28 lots for a total spend of $6.5 million to retain his leading buyer crown at Karaka for a record 15th successive year.
‘‘We bought yearlings from $15,000 through to $875,000, so we have horses at all price levels for all of our owners,’’ Ellis said.
‘‘The horses we are trying to buy is a horse who can race at two. We like to see them out in the autumn, but the one proviso that we do have is they must train on at three, four, and five.
‘‘Remarkably all our Karaka Million horses all get better as they get older and last year Melody Belle, for example, won more group one races than any other horse in the sale.’’
Ellis was pleased to see a strong sale with plenty of yearlings on offer by first season sires.
‘‘I think it has been a very good sale,’’ he said. ‘‘There has been a lot of first season sires.
‘‘We are desperate for new sires in New Zealand, so I am thrilled that the studs are giving it their best crack and I thought the standard this year was very high and the sales series has been a huge success.’’